Marathon Training Week 6: Finally out of the comfort zone!

This was the first week of the Hansons plan that included a track workout and a tempo run, rather than 5 or 6 easy runs. After all my whining about how 5 weeks of easy runs were so boring and I couldn’t wait for the “real work” to start, when push came to shove I was actually pretty nervous about the more intense workouts. On my way to the track for speedwork, I had race morning-level butterflies bombarding my stomach! But the first two speedwork sessions went well, which is a nice confidence boost as the plan continues to increase both mileage and intensity.

Monday 7/29 – 4 easy miles, 10:40 average pace. I felt ok, just a bit sluggish. I figured going extra easy the day before the track probably wasn’t the worst idea ever.

Tuesday 7/30 – First track workout!! The plan called for 12x400m, with 400m recovery laps between each interval, plus 1.5mi to the track and back. I wrote another bloop about the multitude of characters that made this an entertaining evening (check it out here) so I’ll just stick to the nitty-gritty here. According to my goal marathon time, I was supposed to aim for a time of 2:02 for each 400m lap. Here’s how it went:

1:55

1:56

2:02

1:58

2:00

1:52

1:57

1:55

1:54

1:55

1:49

1:47

I would like to work on getting my pace more even between laps, but overall I’m really happy with how this workout went!

Wednesday 7/31 – Rest day!!

Thursday 8/1 – First tempo run! Plan called for 5 miles at GMP (9:00/mile), plus 1-mile warm-up and 1 mile cool-down. I picked a fairly hilly route so holding the pace was a bit of a challenge, especially when Mile 3 was almost entirely a gradual climb. But I’m definitely satisfied with how the 5 tempo miles went:

9:02

8:59

8:59

8:48

8:37

Then on Thursday night I went to yoga, which felt amazing after the speedy days on Tuesday and Thursday!

Friday 8/2 – Easy 4.25 miles, 9:51 average pace. This was one of those morning runs that I just love. It was fairly cool (at least for August in DC), the sun was just coming up, and there were lots of other early-morning runners around. It just felt very peaceful and relaxing.

Saturday 8/3 – Easy 8 miles, 10:35 average pace. Kind of an icky run. My left lower leg was a bit achy, and I had a nagging side stitch for the last 3 miles. Meh. But went to my first professional soccer game (DC United vs. Montreal Impact), so that was really fun!

Sunday 8/4 – Another easy 8 miles, 9:43 average pace. Such a difference from Saturday’s run! Sunday was pretty much the most perfect run I could have imagined. I didn’t make it out until early afternoon, which normally would be a terrible idea due to heat/humidity, but Sunday’s weather was incredible! Low 80s and dry, with a brisk wind that kept the temperature really comfortable throughout the run. Bright sunshine, big puffy clouds, and seeing about ¾ of the city out enjoying the weather made for such a pleasant day! And my leg felt much better, so that was good too!

Mileage total for the week: 40.29 miles! My first time ever breaking 40!! It’s a little weird – my highest mileage week in training for RocknRoll last winter was 37.xx miles, and I felt like I was going to die. Now I’m far from the peak of this training plan, already running both higher and more intense mileage, and for the most part, I feel considerably stronger and better than I did throughout the last training cycle. Crazy how this training thing works!

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